Nine years after the hostage taking, a tribute was paid on Tuesday, in the presence of several ministers and elected officials, to the victims of the Hyper Cacher supermarket: four Jews were killed there on January 9, 2015.
During this ceremony organized in front of the supermarket in the 20th arrondissement by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), candles were lit one by one in memory of Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham and François-Michel Saada, the four convenience store customers killed during a hostage-taking by jihadist Amedy Coulibaly, then shot dead by the police.
“Their only mistake was to symbolize everything that the bearers of hatred hate. Nine years later, time passes but the fighting continues,” said CRIF President Yonathan Arfi at the start of the ceremony. He also called for tribute to be paid to the French victims of the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
Present at this ceremony were ministers Eric Dupond-Moretti (justice), Clément Beaune (transport), Bérangère Couillard (gender equality), Sabrina Agresti-Roubache (city and citizenship) and Aurore Bergé (solidarity).
Tributes to victims of other attacks
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, the former prime minister Manuel Valls, the editorial director of Charlie Hebdo, Riss, the interministerial delegate for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (Dilcrah) Olivier Klein, senator Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée and deputies Sylvain Maillard and Constance Le Grip were also on site.
These personalities lit several candles in tribute to the eleven victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack, killed by the brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi on January 7, 2015, to the police officers Ahmed Merabet and Clarissa Jean-Philippe murdered shortly after, and more broadly to the victims of anti-Semitism including those killed in front of the Ozar-Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and those on rue des Rosiers in 1982.
The memory of teachers Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard and that of the victims of the October 7 attacks were also honored.
In addition to the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, many leaders of the Jewish community were present, including Elie Korchia (Central Consistory), Joël Mergui (Paris Consistory), Ariel Goldmann (Unified Jewish Social Fund). After the reading of a psalm and the recitation of the kaddish, the ceremony ended with a minute of silence and La Marseillaise.
Tributes had already been paid on Sunday by the political world to the 17 victims of these attacks in January 2015.